McCullum excited about change in pace

Posted Tuesday, 29 October, 2013 in International News

Since the second Test's last day washout that drew the curtains on the white-clothing leg of the tour, eight players have got on the plane home, to be replaced by eight one day specialists, many of whom have spent time in the sub continent with New Zealand A, the Otago Volts, or a short camp in India just before this leg of the Bangladesh tour.

Plenty of new faces have joined the BLACKCAPS for the limited overs section of the tour.

BLACKCAPS captain Brendon McCullum is excited about the next phase of the tour: "It's a new series with new players, and it's exciting to welcome them into the tour. We're obviously looking to try and win the series, that's certainly our goal. We feel the pressure on us, which is as it should be, it's tough playing international cricket. Some of the guys in the squad have been around a long time, and they'll be able to ease the burden as such, on some of the young guys who are coming in."

The question of atonement for the 4-0 series loss in Bangladesh in 2010 has been asked and asked since the BLACKCAPS stepped off the plane in Bangladesh, which McCullum attempted to put to bed: "The personnel is a lot different, and we've evolved a lot as a team since then. 4-0 was a very one sided content, and Bangladesh thoroughly deserved to win the series. We played some pretty poor cricket and weren't prepared for that series, and we've tried to have guys prepare a lot better leading into this tour. We want to carve out our own performances, it would be great to turn the tables on what happened last time, but it's not a major motivating factor for us."

The BLACKCAPS trained at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium today.

Finding the right mix of bowlers will be a selection headache, with attacking options galore. "We've got experienced campaigners in the likes of Kyle Mills and Tim Southee, as well as some relative youngsters in Adam Milne, Corey Anderson and James Neesham, so they're going to get some exposure over the next couple of games as well, which is exciting for them and hopefully the conditions aren't too brutal on them and they're able to perform at their best. It's Mitchell McClenaghan's first trip to the sub continent, and he's an incredibly exciting talent for us and since he's come into international cricket we've been able to change the way we attack with the ball, and keep attacking through the innings, using him in short spells."

As with the Test series, the question of when to introduce new players will need to be solved, with some new-ish BLACKCAPS making the trip. "There's only one day in between the first two one dayers, so that could be quite tough - we need to be quite sure of the what the make up of the team is, especially those who are making their first trip to the sub continent as well. They've obviously prepared in India and Sri Lanka and places like that, but to come over and jump straight into a series, that can be quite hard, so we have to be aware of that and make sure that we just don't expose all those guys at the same time, but we can surround them with some experience as well," said McCullum.

The BLACKCAPS take on Bangladesh in One Day Internationals in Dhaka on October 29 and 31, and in Fatullah on 3 November, followed by a Twenty20 match in Dhaka on 6 November to bring the tour to a close.